As the examination of the 2023 draft budget has just opened in the National Assembly, the government is tabling an amendment which aims to introduce an exceptional contribution to the superprofits of the oil industries.
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This amendment provides for a contribution amounting to 33% for oil companies whose results – profits – exceed the average of the last four years by 20%. It remains to be seen what the text of the law will define as the scope of calculation for the profit recorded over the last four years. Will this be the result recorded, declared and imposed in France? Or the overall result of the company concerned, including the profits made and taxed abroad? Have.
>> Superprofits: do large groups pay enough taxes?
Take the case of TotalEnergies, which is currently the focus of all attention: the profits of the French multinational are made and taxed in the countries in which it does most of its business, namely oil extraction. In France, TotalEnergies mainly deals with the refining of gasoline. On this activity, the group will pay much more taxes this year because the activity is running at full speed: the margins made on refining have gone from 30 euros per tonne in January to 140 this summer. But what exactly will the final text of the law retain as the perimeter for the famous 33% of profits deemed excessive? That’s the whole question.
This decision is also very political, but what is apparently presented as a French initiative is in reality absolutely not. The amendment tabled by the government to the finance bill (PLF) for 2023 is dictated by Brussels. It is a measure decided at 27 and that Paris transposes into French law. Needless to say, the idea of taxing what the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, had called “crisis profiteers” will electrify the benches of the National Assembly in the coming days and weeks.